Building a better business: Amazon has been using machine learning over the past quarter century for everything from developing personalized ecommerce recommendations to optimizing fulfillment center pick paths to navigating drones for Prime Air, noted the company’s CEO, Andy Jassy, in his annual letter to shareholders. But generative AI promises to “transform and improve virtually every customer experience,” he wrote.
While there is a wide array of potential use cases for retailers, we believe that some of the most viable and valuable ones include:
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Chatbots: Generative AI can help retailers provide faster, personalized, and engaging responses to customer inquiries.
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Product descriptions: The technology can automate new product descriptions and product categorization. For example, Shopify recently rolled out Shopify Magic, which can create product descriptions based on the keywords merchants wish to target in search results and their desired tone (such as “expert” or “sophisticated”).
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Personalization: Generative AI can tailor the shopping experience to consumers based on their purchase history, preferences, and behavior.
The big takeaway: Generative AI has a ways to go before it delivers on its promise as it currently requires significant supervision.
- But given that it has strong momentum, retailers should experiment with how and where they can test the tool to avoid getting left behind.
Go further: Read our ChatGPT and Retail report to dive deeper into generative AI’s growing role within the industry.
This article originally appeared in Insider Intelligence's Retail & Ecommerce Briefing—a daily recap of top stories reshaping the retail industry. Subscribe to have more hard-hitting takeaways delivered to your inbox daily.